Poll finds Martha Coakley leading gubernatorial rivals

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Attorney General Martha Coakley tops the Massachusetts gubernatorial race, according to a new poll.

Coakley is leading both Democratic primary rivals and potential general election opponent Charlie Baker, a Republican, the University of Massachusetts Amherst poll of registered voters found. The new survey was generally consistent with other recent public polls.

In a hypothetical Democratic primary, she led the next closest candidate, Treasurer Steven Grossman, by 30 percentage points. Other candidates trailed even further.

In a hypothetical two-candidate general election, Coakley led Baker by 11 points, 45 percent to 34 percent. Twenty-one percent were not sure which candidate they would most likely vote for in November.

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Grossman also led Baker in a head-to-head matchup, but by a smaller margin. Former homeland security official Juliette Kayyem, another Democratic candidate, was tied with Baker. Former Medicaid and Medicare chief Donald M. Berwick, a fourth Democratic candidate, trailed him.

The poll did not include the other Democratic contender in the race, biopharmaceutical company executive Joe Avellone.

The survey found 43 percent of respondents approved of the way Governor Deval Patrick was doing his job, while 36 percent disapproved. Nineteen percent neither approved nor disapproved.

Besides Baker and the five Democrats, there are five other people seeking to succeed Patrick: Republican Mark Fisher, a businessman; independent Jeffrey McCormick, a venture capital investor; independent Evan Falchuk, a lawyer and former business executive; independent Scott Lively, a Christian pastor; and Libertarian Larry Medolo, a massage therapist.

The survey, conducted by YouGov America, interviewed 500 registered Massachusetts voters — including 156 Democrats — online from March 31 to April 6. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 5.9 percentage points. Among the subset of Democrats, the margin of error was plus or minus 7.9 percentage points